Rise of The Lanterns
by KindHeartedWriter
Summary: I've seen sun flowers before. Flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I found a sun flower, so Eugene tells me, and I plucked it from the ground. From what I can remember, I needed it as an emotional tether. Now, centuries later, I have my friends with me. They were people I didn't know once. They are like me: guardians. I can't remember my name. I think it started with an R.
1. Long Day

A/N:

* * *

_**Warning: This fanfic is based on my (uncompleted) "Lanterns of Gold" saga. If you have no read **__Tangled for a Flower_ **_at least, then I advise you do, or you will be confused._**

* * *

Hello, my lovelies.

Welcome to another fanfic by K. :)

Our guardians are: **Nathan** Valor Lei Keen, **Azalea** Salta Gothel Ruffins Keen, **Rosemary** Feroz Fennel Welks, **Caroline** Gen Fennel Brackkets Dawson, **Riley** Lee Welks, **Eugene** Amado Fitzherbert, **Rapunzel** Hermoso Duname Mendel Fiztherbert, and** Michael** Juala Dawson.

Dang, those names. :)

* * *

This is slightly dark, mkay? Rated M for language maybe, and that's it.

Rated M for content too, but not for what you think.

Yes, Pitch will return.

Yes, we will see our main guardians.

Yes, I've added guardians of my own, good and bad.

We will find our bad guardians in a bit, but enjoy otherwise. :D

* * *

Chapter One

I watched Eugene's face go blank as he thought back. Way back.

"Hungry?" Azalea looked over at Nathan, her green eyes worried. Nathan shook his head and tugged at the end of his baggy sleeves.

"You're never hungry." Riley accused Nathan, and the sound of his voice made me jump. It had been a long day, and Riley and Nathan sometimes had the worst of it. Riley would close himself off from everyone, while Nathan went days without eating.

Rosemary looked at Nathan, and then her gaze went to her younger sister Caroline. Caroline's blue-green eyes went to Rosemary, and she automatically moved to her side. She nudged Rosemary's shoulder with hers and Rosemary looked down.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

Caroline tried to be positive. "Don't worry about it. It's been a long day."

"Long day is right." Azalea sighed, going to the refrigerator to find a bottle of alcohol. "Three suicides that I couldn't stop."

"A little boy died today." Nathan said softly. "He was hungry. So I am not."

Riley added his own share of bad news. "Someone lied to their mother about going to a party. They were drugged and now their mother's looking for them."

Michael looked at everyone's crestfallen faces. "A gambler lost his house trying to pay off his dues. He's got loan sharks after him."

Eugene's light brown hazelish eyes blinked as he became more aware of where he was. When he stopped reliving the past. "That girl who got kidnapped, Riley, she's lied to the kidnappers about being a single child. They're trying to find her sister."

I groaned and put my head in my hands.

"What is it, Punz?" Azalea asked sadly. There was always someone we couldn't save.

"Her sister cuts." I spoke, and cleared my throat. I didn't like talking too much. Seeing people hurt themselves seemed to take away my will to speak. "She's attempted suicide twice. She's going nuts without her sister."

It was quiet while we all tried to brace ourselves for another day.

We saved many people from despair, but there was _always_ someone we couldn't save.

We all had our issues with that aspect.

Whenever Nathan saw a starving child or even an obese person walking down the street, he wouldn't want to eat anything for days. When Azalea couldn't save someone from committing suicide, she turned to drinking to chase the pain away.

When Michael saw people throw their lives away, the saddest mood would lapse over him. He had to start taking depression aids to bring him back. Eugene couldn't sleep when someone lied, and the sleep aids weren't working.

Rosemary was clingy when she'd watch people argue. Especially the parents. She was the one who would wake the children up to try and make their parents stop arguing. She would always be by one of us if the child stayed asleep, or worse yet, join the argument and take up one parent's side.

Riley couldn't stand secrets, and because of him, we were all honest. Whenever someone lied, and Riley couldn't get them to tell the person that they had fibbed, Riley would close off. From us.

Caroline had a problem with cliques, being the guardian of loyalty, and she stayed away from high schools. The one time she went, trying to stop a disaster from happening with a group of girls trying to fight one girl, she came back in hysterics.

Me? I was mute. I chose to. With every intentional slash of the knife on someone's skin, knowing that they put it there to bring themselves back from a world of pain, it made me sick to my stomach. It made me silent.

Unfortunately, we were all this way too often.

Rosemary was always clingy, Eugene was having nightmares, Nathan was always not eating. Riley was reserved, Michael was moody, and Azalea was drunk.

Some guardians we were.

* * *

"I wish I could remember sometimes." Riley said. The sound of his voice made me look up. It had been two days since our sharing of bad news. It had soiled our moods even more, and we all stayed silent around each other.

"I know." Azalea said wistfully, and the sunlight that filtered in the leaves made her black hair shine blue. "I have dreams sometimes."

"You do?" Riley sat up on the couch urgently. Only a few of us had extra talents. Like the first "talents" weren't enough. Riley's dreams could see a day into the future, hence why he was the guardian of intuition.

"I can see myself trying to. . . Help someone, I think. They're being hurt right in front of me, and I'm trying to fight the person who's hurting them." Azalea said her explanation again. This was how we figured out what she guarded. She was the guardian of sacrifice.

"Nothing changes?" Riley remembered her words, and I saw disappointment cloud his face.

Azalea shook her head, and Riley's bright blue eyes went to me. "Anything?"

"I don't dream." I said, and Nathan shook his head in denial.

"Everyone dreams." He said, munching on his salad.

"Maybe I forget them." I said, a little crestfallen. How nice it must be. To fall asleep and see beautiful things.

What was more beautiful than our tree house in the Amazon? I looked at the smooth wood walls and floors. The marble countertops of the kitchen and the colorful rugs that we had found Azalea with. She couldn't remember sewing, but every time we asked, she insisted that the rugs were hers.

Caroline's blond hair nipped my face as she ran past me. "I got it!"

Riley looked over at her. "Got what? An irritated friend?"

"What?" Caroline froze in her tracks.

Riley pointed at me and I rubbed my face to rub the redness away.

"I'm not mad." I murmured, and Caroline looked at Riley.

"Riley?" She arched one eyebrow, a talent I wished I possessed.

"You have what?" Riley asked, and Caroline's mind backtracked. He grinned at me, and Azalea snickered; Riley could easily distract someone.

"I figured out how to beat Eugene at ping-pong!" Caroline beamed.

I sat up straight. "That's impossible."

"It's true." Caroline hiccupped. "Rosemary just beat him."

Eugene walked into the room, his head hung and Rosemary danced in behind him. "Eugene is now beaten."

I looked at Rosemary. "But I can beat _you_ at ping-pong."

Everyone laughed at the surprised expression that sprang on Rosemary's face. Michael had been cleaning the windows in front of the kitchen the entire time and peeked around the corner of the fridge. "Punzie, you can't be serious."

Punzie was a shorter version of Rapunzel. I couldn't remember my name. I _thought_ it started with an R. I had always grown my hair so long and Azalea had called me 'Rapunzel' once, thinking it had been my name.

It stuck with me, though that had been decades ago.

"I beat her once." I admitted quietly.

It was quiet for half a second.

"I challenge you to a match!" Nathan said to Azalea, and I saw her flush. Living with each other so long, some of us became more than friends. Nathan and Azalea were smitten with each other, though they tried not to show it. Rosemary and Riley displayed their affection gently, from holding hands to kissing in the music room.

Michael and Caroline would go on long walks to the river and sometimes they wouldn't walk there. Eugene and I? Well. . .

I had no idea sometimes.

"Challenge accepted." Azalea grinned, and Rosemary winked at me.

"You know, Azalea, I have a shirt that says that." Caroline smiled. She and Michael could fly. I had never seen them take off, but one time Caroline had flown through my window practicing. She nor Michael had wings, but they always had a feather with them. Caroline had hers in her hair, and Michael's was visible from one of the front pockets of his jeans.

I couldn't fly, only glide. I used my long blond hair, though it sometimes turned brown after a hard day, as a parachute. I could jump from the tree house and grab the ends of my hair to land softly.

Rosemary, Riley, and Azalea couldn't fly either. They could hover on a good day, when we –these rarely happen- save everyone we aimed to. They could hover over the ground, and one time, Riley touched one of the clouds in the sky.

Nathan could jump as high as fifty feet in the air, but on an empty stomach, he'd be unconscious on the way down.

Eugene was the only one who was closest to flying with Caroline and Michael. He was the guardian of honesty, and could only rely on us _telling_ him he could fly. We had to believe in the power of flight, and Eugene could fly as high as a kite.

"Hey, Carol?" I asked and she looked at me as we followed Azalea and Nathan into the game room. "Do you have wings?"

Caroline's blue-green eyes glowed with life. "One day, I'll show you, Angel."

I still had no way of understanding why they all sometimes called me angel.

Was it because of my long blond hair?

My confusion must had shown on my face because Caroline smiled gently at me. "You have white streaks around your face in your hair, and when you smile, I can imagine a halo."

I sighed. I'd never see them.

"Do you look in a mirror, Punz?" Caroline asked, and I shook my head. "Why?"

I never looked in a mirror because of the children I'd watch hurt themselves. If I looked in a mirror, I'd see myself cut up, the fresh cuts oozing blood while old scars were highlighted against my skin. I looked in a mirror one time, and I screamed loud enough that I nearly made everyone's eardrums explode. That was also right around the time I stopped talking.

"Ask Rosemary to be there with you." Caroline said soothingly. Rosemary was the guardian of strength.

"Ask Riley to watch Nathan." Riley could see Nathan not eating in his dreams if he wanted to. Nathan was the guardian of discipline, and he loved being around army bases. But Nathan couldn't make himself eat. It was ironic in a twistedly sad way.

"Michael knows what Nathan's doing." Caroline said sadly. Of course Michael would. He was the guardian of knowledge, and libraries were his kingdoms. He knew everything that went around in the tree house. Not in the world though. He only gained knowledge of that by watching TV or reading the newspapers.

"It makes me sad." I sighed, and looked around. Caroline had guided me into the studio. My studio, though we all shared it. The studio had a collection of instruments. One of Michael's harps, a piano, Caroline's clarinet, Riley's violin, Rosemary's cello, Azalea's flute, Nathan's harmonica. I didn't have a particular instrument, though I loved the piano. Eugene admired the drums we had, and I found him practicing songs a few times.

"It would. You watch him become less and less innocent. You watch him lose himself." Caroline sighed. I was the guardian of innocence, and newborn babies were amazing to me. You could see the innocence pouring off of them in little white waves. I saw halos on newborn babies.

_They_ were the angels.

"Punz, Carol, I won!" Azalea exploded into the studio. She started hiccupping with laughter when Nathan's voice asking for a rematch reached us. "No rematch! I beat you!"

"Eugene tripped me!"

"Eugene!" Azalea whined.

Caroline and I started laughing, and shooed Azalea back into the game room. We followed her inside, and the sight of happiness on my friend's faces made me smile.

If we couldn't save everyone, we could at least save each other.

* * *

A/N:

And there we go. Chapter One.

R&R, mkay? :D


	2. Winter Spirit

A/N:

God, I love this already.

Here you go. :)

* * *

Chapter Two

I couldn't make her stop cutting, but. . .

I knocked on her apartment door.

The door opened, and her dark brown eyes gazed at me. "Who are you?" Her tone was sleepy, and dark circles stood prominent under her eyes.

"How are you?" I asked. I concentrated on the confusion that filled her, and let it guide me to the scared little girl that hid in her heart.

"I'm fine." She said, and her eyes appraised me. "Are those new?"

I looked at my semi-new jeans and nodded. We hardly went shopping. Apparently, we were to reach a point that people would believe in us so strongly, that we would be trapped in whatever we wore. Because of the thought, Michael had us all make outfits that we'd eventually be wearing all the time.

Mine wasn't done yet. Riley _claimed_ that his was done. I didn't know how he had done it so quickly. But then again, it had been a while since Michael had told us.

Like, three years.

So we all should have been done.

But we were so busy between hard days –where some of us would be in too much pain to move- and good days –where we would go to festivals all over the world and play ping-pong all night- that we hardly had time.

Yet Riley had said he was done.

"Do you need more bandages?" I asked.

Rosemary had the talent of being able to go through walls whenever she wished, thus allowing her to go into the girl's bathroom and tell me that she needed more things to keep her cuts healing and not infected. Sometimes, I really thought everyone else was better than me. I never thought I was equal to them.

Could you blame me though?

The girl looked at me, and then at the plastic bag I was holding.

We were hardly ever at our tree house.

Because we were visible, we couldn't just fly into the sky when we wanted to go home. Well, we'd have to be in the woods or something to do such a thing.

Most of the time, Caroline, Rosemary, Azalea, and I would stay in an apartment, and the boys would stay in an apartment not far from ours. Eugene and Azalea were the ones with a car.

Azalea, Caroline, Nathan, Riley, Michael, and I were the ones with the jobs. Azalea and Nathan worked in a bakery –which was ironic, given Nathan's condition- while Riley worked as a florist. Rosemary _had_ a job. She was hired as his assistant. But then she broke a drying clay pan, so Riley "fired" her. She still snuck in to check on the red poppies she grew in some of his pots.

Michael was a librarian, and Caroline was his assistant.

"Thank you," the girl said, looking at the bandages in the bag. Snow flurries caught in her hair, and most definitely mine. She looked at me, the white strands in my blond hair, the pleading expression on my face. "Is it Halloween or something? Are you Rapunzel?"

I started giggling. "No." My laughter made a twinkle come to her eyes, and she smiled a tiny smile.

She started to close the door, waving at me. "Wait!" I said.

"What is it?" Her brown hair was starting to frizz up because of the snow flurries melting in her hair.

"What's your name?"

She tipped her head to the side. "I'm Luna."

* * *

I sat down on the icy concrete stairs, wishing I had brought a hat with me. Caroline was taking forever trying to get Azalea out of the library. When we had walked in, Azalea had been trying to make Nathan eat one of the rolls. Sensing the amount of time that would be wasted standing around, I volunteered to stand around outside.

Silly me.

It had been almost an hour.

"You look happy." A voice made me look up. A young man with ice white hair and from what I could tell, very blue eyes was grinning at me impishly from across the side walk.

Who was he?

I had a guess.

"I've been sitting her for an hour." I looked around for a clock, but then remembered that I was in. . .

I had no idea what state we lived in.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

He raised his dark eyebrows, which didn't make sense. Maybe he dyed his hair. He had the face that had a look of a mischievous elf and an intelligent scholar. So what he said surprised me.

"I actually have no idea." The deep tone of his voice sent a shiver down my spine. He gazed around like he was looking for a "Welcome to. . ." state sign.

He came to sit next to me on the stairs.

"Glad she can see me," he mumbled under his breath. His icy dark blue hoodie and dark brown trousers were timeless. How old was he?

"Why wouldn't I see you?" I asked him, confused. His blue eyes went to my face, and stayed there, searching.

Whose hair could be so white? Like snow? It looked surprisingly soft, like the bottom of a swan's belly. I wanted to run my hand through the strands to see how it felt. His jawline was surprisingly strong, and I wanted to stroke his near-porcelain cheeks.

"Rapunzel, are you ready?" Caroline's voice made the two of us jump.

I hurtled myself to my feet. "Am _I_ ready?"

I looked at where he was sitting and was confused when I realized that he was all the way on the other side of the road again. I looked back at Caroline, and Azalea and Nathan who were walking out. Nathan looked green under Azalea's tight grip.

"Azalea, let go of me." Nathan groaned through clenched teeth.

"You did really good, Nathan." Azalea's tone was soothing.

"I can't believe I ate two." Nathan went greener.

"But you did good. You ate." Azalea soothed uselessly. Even I, even _she_, could see that Nathan was about to waste her efforts. It wasn't staying down.

"I can't do that again." Nathan groaned. "Azalea, let go."

"Let's see how long it can stay down-"

"Let _go_." Nathan growled.

Azalea turned him loose and Nathan sprinted down to the nearest trash can. I could hear him retching from where I stood, and a pain shot through my stomach. I doubled over, landing on my knees.

"Rapunzel, it's okay." Caroline and Azalea crowded me.

Nathan was still retching, and with every churn of his stomach, the pain kept flowing. I sucked in a tight breath through my teeth.

"He's okay, Punz." Azalea started to shake me.

"No!" I gasped. "He's not okay." With every retch, he was losing himself. Nathan was already so far gone-

He _wasn't_ okay.

The young man had come back. "What's happened?"

"Stomach pains." I could see Azalea looking at him with wide green eyes. Caroline was busy trying to help me back to my feet.

"She looks like she's about to be sick." The man said. He looked at Caroline. "What happened?"

Caroline didn't seem to hear him.

"Nathan, are you okay?" She called down to him. The man whirled around, looking at Nathan who was now dry heaving into the trash can.

"F-Fine!" Nathan called back weakly.

I felt ice cold fingers try to help me up. He was helping me as well?

"He's okay, Rapunzel." Azalea said again, firmer. Now there were three pairs of hands trying to get me up. I couldn't move, and tried to smack them all away. I curled up in a ball on the floor, trying to match my breathing with the cramps so they'd go away.

"I'm all right." Nathan's footsteps came back quickly. Everyone just stood around me in a circle, watching me try to pull myself together. I watched Nathan walk up behind the man, and then he went _through_ him.

_What?_ I blinked, and struggled to sit up.

"You're okay?" I looked at Nathan, feeling the cramps slowly –so slowly- subside.

Nathan nodded though he looked unsteady on his feet. His unsteadiness made me feel lightheaded. The way my power worked, if one of my friends were in a pain of any kind that connected to a struggle, I would feel it until the pain went away. Until one of us helped them.

Nathan and his struggle with not eating, and his vomiting just now, was a perfect example.

With strangers, I would just slowly stop talking until I hadn't talked for hours. And then days.

But yesterday had been a good day, so I was talkative today.

I managed to get to my feet, rubbing my temples.

"You all right?" The young man with snow white air asked.

I nodded, and exhaled slowly. The last of the cramps were gone.

"What kept you?" I looked at my friends.

Nathan pointed at Azalea, who looked down. The tops of our hair was covered in snow, except for. . .

I realized I hadn't asked him his name.

"Who are you?" I looked at the man, and was somehow pleasantly surprised that his eyes were on me. Those dark blue eyes of his.

He opened his mouth to answer.

"Who are you talking to?" Caroline looked around.

"You can't see him?" I frowned, and gestured to the man with my head. Nathan looked down the sidewalk, and then at the bakery that was still unlocked.

"See who?" Nathan asked.

The man's dark blue eyes went downcast, and I realized that he was some sort of guardian as well.

Azalea looked right at the man, and I saw compassion fill her eyes. Yet her words made me angry. "I don't see him either."

I wanted to push her into the street and demand answers.

I looked at the man, and frowned. "I can see you."

"Well, that's good." He smiled, though his eyes were still sad. He gestured to Azalea with his head. "I'm sure she can."

"What is your name, though?" I asked, and Nathan looked worried.

He blinked. "Rapunzel, let's go home."

"The apartment?" I asked, tipping my head to the side.

"No. We need you to take a bath and get some sleep." Caroline put her hands on her hips.

"The day's just started." I pointed up to the sky, and then realized that it was actually six o' clock at night. Where had the time gone?

"That's it." Azalea crossed her arms in a stern manner. "Bed rest for you."

"And have people get hurt?" I demanded. "I just need to take a walk or something." What else could I do?

"We can't 'take a walk'." Caroline knew what I meant.

I frowned at them, except for the man whose name I still didn't know. "I'll meet you back at the apartment."

"Punz-" Nathan started.

"I'll _meet_ you." I said forcibly, and started walking.

They always tried to do this.

When I couldn't save someone, they threatened to put me on bed rest. What did they want me to do? Smile when I saw someone mar their skin with a knife? I couldn't be strong all the time.

I was around the corner from the park. In the park, every park really, they had an area where there would be ducks and little streams. I was going to 'take a walk', and no one was going to stop me.

I had to get away from Nathan's lightheadedness. It was hard enough for me to walk. The sidewalk kept acting like it wanted to kiss my face.

"Are they worried about you or they're just controlling friends?" The man was suddenly by my side.

I jumped, "You scared me!"

Panic filled his eyes. "I'm very, very sorry!" He yelped, and then his face darkened in concentration as he looked around. _It was just an expression_, I wanted to say.

I watched him, frozen in my tracks. His messy snow white hair whipped in the rapid movement that his head was making as he stared around. It was sort of funny.

"What are you looking for?" I asked him.

He froze, and his eyes went to me. "Nothing." He straightened up, and I realized that he held a staff in his hand. The top was bent, shaped like a G. Was he a shepherd, or had he wanted it that way?

"Didn't look like nothing." I started humming. I kept walking, confused when he kept up. "Want something?"

"Just your lovely company." He smiled, and the sight of pearly white teeth against near-porcelain skin made me freeze again.

"My company?"

No one really said that.

On the couch, if I was sitting down, Azalea would nearly fall on me plopping on the couch. And then she'd go, "Whatcha doin'?", while giving me the most innocent expression she could manage.

Which, I would never tell her, was downright adorable.

And I glare at her until she let me recover my shock of her nearly crushing me.

"Mh-hm." He smiled wider, and I had to make my feet begin to move again. We walked to the park, and I sat down on one of the benches.

The man looked around, and then at me. "You know, there's a lake around here."

"There's lakes everywhere." I pointed out.

"Coy. I like it." He grinned, causing me to blush.

"It's probably frozen over." I pointed at the snow flurries that were falling down more thickly.

"Yeah," something flickered in his dark blue eyes that were always on me.

I wanted to ask if he was some sort of stalker.

"Why didn't they see you?" I asked, and he sat up, the playfulness gone from his eyes. "Unless my friends are blind, they should have seen you."

He started mumbling. "I'm probably an eye sore." was all I heard.

"You're hardly an eye sore." I muttered under my breath. He looked at me suddenly, and the blush that spread across his face made me smile inside. It was almost blue. Or I was really sick and my pushy friends were right.

"Well, _you_ certainly are a sight for sore eyes." He grinned.

"Be serious." I never looked in a mirror, so for all I knew, he was lying.

"I am, Punzie." He put his hands behind his head and reclined back.

_Punzie._

Why did that sound so nice coming from him?

We sat there in a moderate silence.

"They're probably mad at me."

"Why?" He peered at me.

"We stick together. We obey each other. We-"

"Are leaders and followers at the same time?" He arched an eyebrow.

_Yup_. "No."

"Liar."

"Shepherd." I nodded at his staff.

His eyes widened. "You didn't just. . ."

"Burned." I grinned.

"More like frozen." He huffed.

He went quiet, not looking at me.

I looked at him, and put my hand to my mouth.

I had. . .

"I'm sorry!" I exploded.

"A shepherd!" He threw his hands up in the air. "I _am not_ a shepherd!"

"Then what the heck is that then?" I pointed at his staff.

"It's a staff!" He exclaimed.

"Then you're a bloody Winter Spirit!" I declared.

He went still, his mouth open with shock.

"What? Am I right? Maybe it is Halloween." I frowned. "No calendar at home so. . . You're a Winter Spirit. It makes sense." I touched his hair delicately. "The frost on your clothes, your snow white hair. It's a nice costume."

He was frozen for a few long moments, and then he started laughing.

At me.

Caroline would have _killed_ him. This was what she hated.

"Bye." I got up and started walking to the forest part of the park.

"No!" He called after me, and he was still chuckling. "I'm sorry!"

"I thought that was your costume!" I shouted at him.

I had to remember that part of the park wasn't empty.

"It's not!" He grinned.

"Well, I know that now!"

He hopped off the bench after me, grabbing his 'staff'. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me back to him.

_Whoa._

I had to crane my neck to see his head. He was taller than Eugene by quite a few inches. Was he 6'5'' by chance?

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." He said sincerely, and his blue eyes were almost hypnotic.

"I did it a few minutes ago, so you should be _golden_." I hissed.

"You should be _frozen_." He laughed at his own joke. I didn't really get it, but hey, as Michael said, 'We all have our tastes'.

We stood there for moment, him leaning down at me, and I nearly on my tip-toes to keep eye contact with him.

"I need to go home." I told him, and felt disappointed.

Suddenly, being a 'guardian' was hard.

I liked my new friend.

"I have to bring winter to the world, since I'm a 'Winter Spirit'." He used quotation marks.

I put my hands on my hips though I couldn't stop myself from laughing. The atmosphere between us grew sad quickly.

"Bye, Punz." He whispered, his blue eyes dimmed.

"Bye. . ." I sighed.

He smiled, sensing that I wanted to say his name.

"Jack Frost."


End file.
